diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ceaba8f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+## Contributing
+
+The most recently released `protobuf-c` version is kept on the `master` branch, while the `next` branch is used for commits targeted at the next release. Please base patches and pull requests against the `next` branch. __Do not open pull requests against master!__
+
+Copyright to all contributions are retained by the original author, but must be licensed under the terms of the [BSD-2-Clause](http://opensource.org/licenses/BSD-2-Clause) license.